Flame red fern coral growing on Hastings Reef, part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park off the coast of Cairns, Far North Queensland. Picture: Brendan RadkeSource:News Corp Australia

IF THERE’S one animal in the world that’s notorious for being terrible at sex, it’s coral.

Not only are they at the mercy of everything from waves to currents, the success rate of coral spawning isn’t very promising.

When corals spawn in natural environments, clouds of eggs and sperm float every which way, at the mercy of the currents, winds, and waves.

When eggs and sperm do manage to hook up, the resulting larvae often drift away from reefs and die. And very few of the larvae that do settle on reefs actually take hold and reach breeding age themselves.

Scientists have started to face facts realising that if they want coral to reproduce, they might have to make them do it — and one Australian marine biologist might have the answer.

Southern Cross University professor Peter Harrison has developed a form of coral IVF and his first attempt was a smash success.

Professor Harrison has studied marine science for over 35 years and was recently awarded a $1.2 million grant from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) to release millions of coral larvae onto a blast-damaged reef in the Philippines.

The release “successfully re-established a breeding coral population from coral larvae settling directly on the reef,” Harrison said.

“The really exciting outcome is that surviving corals grew fast enough to get to a big enough size to start sexually reproducing themselves after three years,” he added.

Speaking to news.com.au, the professor said he hopes the method will one day become the new norm to restore damaged coral instead of the usual coral gardening which often fails completely.

“The larval restoration allows much higher genetic diversity of corals to settle naturally on damaged reefs and these have a greater chance of adapting to changing environmental conditions on reefs in future,” he said.

The funding, which is designed to provide support for research and capacity building within developing nations, picked the Philippines as “an ideal location to do this pioneering research”, Professor Harrison said.

While the breakthrough is still in its early stages, the Australian professor has high hopes for the study telling news.com.au the ‘IVF’ could be used to restore mass coral bleaching — like the Great Barrier Reef.

“The larval restoration technique will allow us to rebuild new corals and populations on damaged and degraded coral reefs, including those damaged by mass coral bleaching events,” he said.